A driverless taxi did not stop and circled around a parking lot in Los Angeles: a passenger missed the plane (2 photos)

A passenger missed his flight to Arizona because his self-driving taxi made eight long circles before Waymo's support team managed to stop the vehicle.





A routine trip to LAX turned into a real disaster for Mike Jones. The man missed his flight because his self-driving taxi from Google subsidiary Waymo failed to stop and circled around the parking lot.

Mike planned to get home to Scottsdale, Arizona, but instead of a relaxing ride, he got a scenario from a real sci-fi thriller. His Waymo taxi, equipped with autopilot, began circling the parking lot.



The passenger unsuccessfully tried to stop the car himself and immediately contacted the company's technical support.

The man was literally trapped - he remained buckled in the robotic car, which did not respond to his attempts to get out of the car. Technical support was powerless to stop the car remotely. Only after eight circles Waymo employees were able to manually end this "trip", but Mike was already late for his flight.

A week after the incident, Mike is still waiting for an apology or at least compensation.

"Where is the empathy? This is another example of the modern digital world. An immature product, and no one is going to meet the customer, the consumer, halfway," he complained in an interview with CBS News Los Angeles.

The man himself works in the tech industry and wishes success to projects like Waymo, but categorically stated that he will never use the services of an autonomous taxi again.

"Next time I'll just order an Uber," Mike added.